Large-Eddy Simulation of Plane Jet Injection into Supersonic Turbulent Crossflow

Various aspects of airbreathing propulsion systems for use in future space transportation systems, based on scramjet concepts involving combustion of fuel in a supersonic air flow, have been under investigation in the past. In most combustion chamber designs, gaseous fuel is injected at an angle into the air flow, from ports in the duct wall or in some kind of strut or pylon extending into the duct. Although the mixing characteristics of the underlying, more general jet-in-crossflow configuration together with the penetration depth of the jets have great impact on proper combustion of the fuel and correct operation of such a propulsion device, most time-accurate numerical investigations on the transversely injected jet have been carried out for incompressible flow. Numerical work on the supersonic injection flow field is mostly limited to solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. There is thus a need for numerical investigation of the supersonic jet-in-crossflow situation using accurate numerical methods and resolving details of the temporal evolution of the flow. The aim of the present project is to perform large-eddy simulations of the injection of a plane jet into a supersonic flow, using discretization methods of high order of accuracy in both space and time. A mixture of H2 and N2 is injected transversely from a spanwise slot into an air flow in a channel, where reaction with oxygen and heat release take place. The computations are expected to provide detailed information on the physics of this flow, which includes regions of separation, shock-turbulence interaction and turbulence-combustion interaction. Preliminary results together with a description of the computational setup will be presented here.